A decade to separate us: Ars reviews StarCraft 2

StarCraft 2 is the sequel to something that has become more legend than …

Gamers have expectations for StarCraft 2 that will be impossible to meet. Players have waited a decade for a sequel to what is widely considered to be one of the best real-time strategy games of all time, and one of the world's most-played PC games, period. Blizzard certainly isn't afraid to make bold choices: LAN gaming is out, the title is being split into three releases, and the game is launching alongside a reboot of the popular Battle.net service that stretches across all of Blizzard's properties.

We've been playing StarCraft 2 since Monday, and the game is good. It's very good. It's also classical in how it treats its units and the gameplay; those who were never impressed with the original game aren't going to be convinced by this sequel. But if you wanted more StarCraft, with different units, adjusted strategy, and a fully fleshed-out single-player game, then this is going to hit your life like a bomb. Say goodbye to your other hobbies, buy your wife some flowers, and get your kids some new toys. It may be time to take a few days off work. StarCraft 2 is finally here, and it threatens to swallow us whole.

Installation begins with a graphical recap of the story of StarCraft up to this point. You'll be asked to either log into Battle.net or create an account, and you'll be introduced to the new social hub of your Blizzard gaming. You can add friends via Facebook, add Real ID friends if you don't mind sharing your real name, take a look around the beginner's guide to get a feel for the game, play some tutorials... if you don't quite know what's going on, Blizzard throws a number of things at you to read or watch in order to get you up to speed.

The whole setup is rather slick, with in-game news reports, write-ups of new maps, and FAQs to get you started playing on the official Leagues or Ladders. Battle.net can be a rather intimidating place, but there is plenty of content here to explain what exactly is going on so you'll be familiar with the various aspects of the service before you begin to play. If you're new to the series or just want to brush up on your skills, playable tutorials are ready to get you going. It's friendly, it's inviting, and it's a good point of entry into the world of StarCraft 2.

While you'll only play as Terran and Protoss during the single-player campaign, there is a series of Challenge Missions included to help you learn all three races. Each race gets a Basic, Advanced, and Expert challenge, and these will help you learn advanced strategy, introduce you to higher-level play, and teach you about the use of the different units. While you don't need to play these to have a good time, they are an excellent touch for beginner or novice players, and are a welcome addition to the single-player content.

Now, let's discuss the campaign.

Not all who wander are lost... some of us are drunk

The single-player game now has a hub area; you can move around Raynor's ship and explore the Lab, the Bridge, the Cantina, and the Armory. In the Cantina, you can play a 2D shooter that shows what's possible with the game's editor. The jukebox is filled with songs from the fictional world, as well as covers of recognizable hits. You can gain achievements by exploring your ship and talking to your friends and cohorts. StarCraft was a single-player game where the story was explained by talking heads; the sequel features impressive hub areas filled with detail, conversation, and color.

Early in the game, you're faced with a mission where your forces must protect convoys making the trek to an extraction point by slowly trundling down a road beset with Zerg. This should be terrible—no one likes escort missions—but the colonists' vehicles can fight back to a limited degree. You can send mobile troops to escort them, or you can set up bunkers to simply own the road. If you want to get moving on tech advances, then you can explore the surrounding countryside for three Zerg artifacts that give you upgrade points. The road is long and straight, and the Zerg throw increasingly powerful enemies at you—it's a thrilling tactical challenge. The mission should be terrible according to conventional wisdom, but you can tell the mission was playtested into the ground, and the result is a challenge, not a chore.

Other levels introduce a night and day mechanic with different enemies, a rush to grab a set amount of minerals to bribe a mercenary, or stealing walking super weapons from the Dominion's forces. Without needing to balance these units and ideas for multiplayer, the designers at Blizzard went crazy with single-player missions, and it's wonderful to play the game and realize you have no clue what you're in for from one mission to the next.

This is StarCraft; large masses of units are possible

In one mission you're laying waste to a series of trains that travel along a predetermined track, and as you attack, the enemy sends out a wave of very powerful units that patrol the tracks. It's not hard to avoid their patrols and carry out the mission, but if you take them on and win you'll gain an achievement. Sure, that's mostly bragging rights, but watching the crowd of units march around the map made me angry. Hide from them? No way. This little bit of drama doesn't change the story, but it gives the mission an extra kick, and it gives you another reason to go in and try harder. I ended up paying for a few waves of mercenaries back in my base and successfully taking them down with a little help from my marauders. Why? Because this is my land, bitch.

The mission variety is wonderful, and you'll be using your units in all sorts of fun ways throughout the game, but you'll never forget what game you're playing. This is StarCraft, where strategy and resource management are much more important than tactics. Your soldiers don't have any sort of cover system, there is no way to arrange them in any formation, and the best you can hope for in this regard is the advantage given to units with higher ground. Battles between units are often rock-scissors-paper affairs with the winner decided based on number of units or strength/weakness against attacking units. You'll know how most engagements are going to end before a shot is fired.

The missions offer opportunities to earn "research points" that unlock new units or powers

Depending on how much of a completist you are, the single-player campaign can be finished in as little as 15 hours or as much as... well, the sky is the limit. The higher difficulty levels are tough, and each mission can introduce multiple goals and different challenges that must be met to earn all the achievements. If you're interested in the story and don't want a challenge, anyone can cruise through Casual difficulty, but if you want to test your mettle you can jack it up to Brutal. The A.I. in no way replicates what you'll experience against other human players, but the higher the difficulty the more you'll need to worry about speed, efficiency, and unit selection.

Also, while we won't spoil anything, the campaign has a definite ending. It's not a cliffhanger. Thank God.